Illuminated prior art signs have included indicia-bearing rigid sheets of plastic three-sixteenths to one-half inch thick; which neither included a fabric layer nor could withstand a very large bend without fracture.
Illuminated signs featuring a thin, flexible, translucent, fabric-reinforced plastic sheet carrying indicia such as letters of contrasting color and incorporating barrier layers over the plastic coatings and under the letters are taught in our U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,992, "Laminar Sheet Construction", granted Dec. 21, 1993, and pending divisional application Ser. No. 08/096,472, "Laminar Sheet Construction", filed Jul. 22, 1993. These signs required tensioning elements built into frames for the sheet to keep the sheet pulled free of buckling, wrinkling, or other surfaces deformation.